Whatever he is saying in support of a unified State is extracted from the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s speech in Parliament on December 21, 1972 (when she stressed the need to keep AP united in spite of an agitation for a separate Andhra State being at its peak), Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has said Mr. Reddy was speaking at a meeting to observe the death anniversary of Indira Gandhi here on Thursday.
He garlanded her statue at the old Jail Road junction. He also a garlanded the portrait of former Deputy Prime Minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (which was hurriedly organised before the Chief Minister reached the venue) as it was also birth anniversary.
The Chief Minister used Indira Gandhi’s death anniversary to make a strong pitch once again for a unified State by saying that she was a strong integrationist and had put an end to the Telangana agitation in 1969 and the Andhra agitation in 1972 and since she was aware that Andhra Pradesh would prosper only as a unified State.
“If the country has developed and the State remained unified…..and the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes and the backward regions of Telangana, Uttarrandhra and Rayalaseema have developed, it is only due to Indira Gandhi,” Mr. Kiran Reddy said.
He also praised Sardar Patel saying that he was responsible for the merger of all Princely States, particularly Hyderabad, into the India Union and his contribution could not be ignored.
Government Whip Dronamraju Srinivasa Rao said the Chief Minister was always for a unified State and he had not wavered. Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, MLAs and officials were present.
